Are We There Yet? How Much Further? – A Progress Report from the Field of Grazing

I sometimes worry that I might be living in an echo chamber. I constantly talk to people who are interested in grazing and soils and ranching. My mailbox is filled with magazines about modern grazing theory and progressive ranching. I have to set an egg timer each morning to make myself quit reading on-line articles about ruminants and radicals. All of this sometimes causes me to see a world where managed grazing schemes are covering the planet, ending erosion, improving conditions on the ground, and making more money for producers. But now, at the risk of sounding negative, I must tell you: I have growing doubts that modern, managed grazing theory is having much effect on the livestock industry. This past spring my wife and I attended a grazing conference in Pendleton, Oregon. “Managing for Resilience” promised to be just the sort of out-on-the-fringe agricultural love-fest that I look for. The speakers were a pretty radical bunch, and the topics included things like riparian management, climate change, animal behavior, and a bunch more whacky ideas. Plus, the conference was put together by some folks from Holistic Management International, a fringe ag group if there ever was one. One of the headline speakers was giving a talk on the intimate ecological relationships between ruminants, soils, grass and humans. He was telling about the changes in his life and his ranch when he switched from a conventional set-stocking program to a managed grazing system. He spoke